The present invention relates to a polyphase electric machine, in particular a polyphase generator for motor vehicles, having a stator according to the definition of the species of Claim 1 and a method for manufacturing a stator as recited in Claim 17.
Various methods and configurations for achieving a high slot filling factor in generators have already been proposed, in which more than 60% of the slot is filled with copper wire, e.g., in DE 103 029 47 A1, DE 103 061 47 A1 or EP1372242A2. U-shaped connector pieces may be inserted axially from one end through the stator slots, bent on the opposite side, and then welded together. This method is very complex and expensive due to the large number of spot welds. Coils may also be inserted into the open slots of a flat metal laminate and then the laminated core together with the coils may be bent into a round shape. This method is also complex and also entails tolerance problems.
An attempt is made with the present invention to eliminate or at least greatly reduce the aforementioned disadvantages through a suitable design of the stator.